Derek Childs (totalovrdose)
When it comes to blending martial arts and fantasy together during historical periods, China is easily notable for producing entertaining features of this caliber. Containing some outstanding choreography and camera work that really brings the exceptional fight scenes to life, during the initial stages of the feature, the martial-arts appear rather stale, providing little more of a rehash from similar films. With this in mind, viewers need patience when committing themselves to The Four, for it isn't until later that the fights, accompanied by some wicked special effects, really provides seriously new, eye-catching material, a similar statement requiring mentioning when it comes to the story. After almost an hour, the narrative remains vastly interpretative, and it is presumably difficult to ascertain its directionality, this mysterious quality, although potentially annoying for some viewers, adding to the feature's suspense. Though some could complain about lacking information when it comes to the plot and character arks, viewers should keep in mind this is the first of three films, the combined collection hopefully quenching any audience's thirst for information.Despite the notable gaps in the narrative, the characterization provided to the audience is adequate in developing characters that are truly likable, while retaining an atmosphere that is, for the most part, hugely enjoyable, and fun. Emotionless (Liu Ye Fei), a disabled psychic, who, despite her name, is an emotionally sympathetic character, Iron Hands (Collin Chou), a man with incredibly powerful fists, and Life Snatcher (Ronald Cheng), a dangerous debt collector, who recently joins the outfit, are terrifically skilled martial artists under the command of Zhuge Zhermo (Anthony Wong), who form the Divine Constabulary, a group who answers only to the Emperor.The Sheriff King (Cheng Tai Shen), who commands Department 6, a revered military police unit, has no trust in the mythical martial arts group, who are free to traverse where they please. Assigning one of his best operatives, Cold Blood (Deng Chao) - a man who can, upon losing his temper, transform himself into a powerful beast - with the responsibility to assimilate into the group to find out more about them, Cold Blood's allegiance to Department 6 begins to waver as he finds friendship amongst the Divine Constabulary, alongside romantic attraction towards Emotionless.As both the Divine Constabulary and Department 6 investigate the same criminal activity, regarding not only fake currency, but a dangerously powerful magic, capable of bringing back the dead, the Sheriff King finds himself blinded by his beliefs that the Divine Constabulary are behind the attacks, while unable to realize that Ji Yaohua (Jiang Yi-Yan), a fellow Department 6 agent, may be working with the enemy. Harboring feelings for Cold Blood, she and Emotionless begin to play a dangerous game consisting of jealousy and spite in the hopes of winning Cold Blood's heart. All the while, lead antagonist An Shigeng (Wu Xiu Bo) threatens all with his plans, but is he really the head of the serpent, or are there more dangerous players involved? The acrobatic stunts, involving law enforcement officers, assassins and undead alike, abseiling across buildings, requires substantial suspension of disbelief, though if one has previously viewed Legend of the Shadowless Sword, they might find themselves at home in this particular world. Unlike the aforementioned film however, which had much emotional depth applied to its narrative, this is not provided to The Four, though the familial feeling provided by the Divine Constabulary, not to mention the acting by Ms. Ye Fei, is certainly impressive, there being one scene in particular where the audience surely feels for Emotionless.Although the undead are involved in this feature, viewers need not fear clichéd stereotypical genre tropes being applied, and despite the combination of eastern and western philosophies in the development of such beings, they are, thankfully, never depicted as zombies, but as supremely powerful foes in need of vanquishing. The fanciful costumes are typical of other Chinese genre films of the period, and look as glorious and superb as ever, while the visuals, from the headquarters of the Divine Constabulary, to the exotic man-made locations the film visits, feel so genuine and realistic, it is seldom hard to imagine such a group existing within China's history.An accusation that could be made regarding the film is the lack of appearance other members of the Divine Constabulary exhibit during the feature, the previously annotated members of the organization being supplied with all the screen time, whilst the others, who randomly appear during some of the scenes, are largely unexplored. The banter that takes place between all of the members however is lively and playful, and adds to the fun.In conclusion, The Four exhibits a number of similarities with other films from China that explore this particular historic period, however, it is the differences in the script, the characters, and the later fights, that really make this quite a captivating experience.
bcheng93
surprised this movie got such a low rating, i would personally rate this a 7. if i was not a fan of this genre then it would at least still be a six. the main reason i think that people don't like this movie is because the story is very convoluted and the main leads love triangle is not explained farther...hence the convoluteness.there are a lot of things to like about this movie, the cinematography was first rate, the locales were beautiful and enough night and rain scenes to satisfy me. the action scenes were very well done, the acting was not bad, the male leads were better then the female. i love the wuxia genre movies ever since i was a little kid growing up on shaw bros. and golden harvest movies. the wuxia here is very well done although sometimes it felt like a superhero movie( another detriment to this movie...although very well done ). action, martial arts and cgi fans will like this movie, there is a lot of eye candy. the cgi is very good, pretty much seamless interaction with the live-action. some of the locales were breathtaking...the movie is beautiful to look at even though it is not the best made movie.for me personally, i liked it and can't wait till the second one comes out. i'm hoping that the script will be better because that was one of the main things that kept it from being really, really good. again, if you are a eye-candy movie fan, you're going to like this one.
Steve R. Hastings
There is a tradition in Chinese martial arts movies where people strong in "qi" power can jump around light as a feather, fight in treetops, and do other superhuman feats. (Example: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.) There is plenty of that in this movie, and additionally some characters seem to have special powers that other qi masters don't have, making this in some ways like a Western superhero comic story.My favorite character was the girl who is stuck in a wheelchair, but whose qi powers are strong enough that she is far from useless in a fight. Her name is Yayu but her nickname is "Emotionless". Like Jedi in Star Wars movies can detect each other, she can also detect other nearby qi masters. Another IMDb user review speculates that she is simply a ripoff of two characters from X-Men, but I don't agree.The movie has a confusing start, but if you stick with it the characters and plot sort themselves out. There is a shifty criminal in a city, and it turns out that three different groups have their eye on him: the police of "Department 6", the undercover police of "The Divine Constabulary", and some mysterious assassins. Additionally a bounty hunter is after him. The initial action is confusing, as it's not clear who is who. But stick with it, and the end of the movie pays off pretty well.This movie also has a bit of a "steampunk" vibe, with unreasonably advanced clockwork mechanisms that might be partly qi-powered. For no obvious reason there is a giant clockwork crane that Emotionless uses to reach scrolls on the high shelves of a bookcase! And mid-way through the movie, Emotionless gets a nifty upgraded wheelchair that proves useful at the end of the movie.At nearly two hours it runs a bit longer than necessary; I can think of a few cuts that would not have hurt. Still, I give this a 7 on the 10 scale. If you like fantasy martial- arts you might want to add a point to that! Also, I really liked the music.Note: some plot threads are left unresolved, setting up for possible sequels, but this movie has a pretty satisfying ending.
